With the Wildcats coming to Penn State this weekend, the Williams' clan will, too, but without the person who brought them so close.

Quentin Williams has used the strength gained from overcoming his mother's sudden death to help him star at baseball and football at Northwestern. (NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY - STEPHEN J. CARRERA)

York, PA - Not only were the Williams brothers bonded by football growing up, one even followed the other to play at Northwestern University.

And so they were on the field together in Beaver Stadium two years ago when the Nittany Lions rallied to give Joe Paterno his 400th victory.

They will be there again Saturday.

Nate will only watch this time, sitting in the stands with the 25 to 30 members of the Williams' clan. He's learning the management side of the music business in New Orleans, and he's painting again.

But hanging out with his father and watching his brother will bring him back to the game that helped pull his family through the past seven years.

His focus will be on Quentin, the standout senior defensive end for the Northwestern Wildcats.

He's the one who's also so good at baseball that the Toronto Blue Jays drafted him as an outfielder. He played both sports at Northwestern for a couple of years.

Afterward, the brothers will talk about football and life.

Surely, they will think of the most special woman in their life because they always do on football Saturdays.

The one who brought them into this world.

The one who left it so suddenly.

The memory that still drives them on, that rips them apart and yet knits them back together stronger than they ever were.

* * *

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They will think of her, the brothers and their father.

But they might not speak of Evelyn Williams.

Rather, these are emotions better felt and understood.

On game days, Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald gives his players time for quiet and reflection, to focus a few minutes "on who we want to thank," Quentin said.

It's been like this, in a way, for seven years now.

That's when the Williams boys were becoming football stars at Central Catholic High. They lived in a big house in the old, leafy Shadyside neighborhood on Pittsburgh's east side.

Quentin Williams (SUBMITTED)

Their father, Gerald Williams, grew up in a football family and went on to become an architect planner for the city. Evelyn ran an interior decorating business out of their home, specializing in window treatments.

She was the spirited, outgoing one, like Nate. She would talk and laugh with anyone, volunteer for most any group. Football became a family gathering, Evelyn working the concession stand and Gerald lining the field and the boys wiping out the opposition.

It went on like this until the end of January in 2005.

That's when, on the way home from a Friday night movie, Evelyn was struck with an aneurysm.

She was rushed to the hospital.

There, Nate, a junior in high school, and Quentin, a freshman, gathered with their father.

But just two days later, she was gone.

It was only after mourners packed not one but two funeral services did they each fall apart in different ways.

Quentin internalized and analyzed everything, slipping back into a shell of sorts.

Nate pushed it all away at times, focusing on football and college.

The pain and unknowing simply endured.

Eighteen months later, unloading Nate at Northwestern was one of the most difficult things his father ever did.

"We were still trying to figure out our way," Gerald said. "But over time you begin to realize there's a route and a street and you have to get back out and start walking on it."

Meanwhile, Gerald walked around his house, feeling like a ghost looking out the windows.

It would take his boys to snap him back, like the time Quentin challenged him:

"What do I do, Dad?"

He suggested that he write a memory of his mother each day in a thick, blank book.

A year later, every page was filled.

* * *

The Wildcats lured Quentin with much more than academics and early playing time.

His older brother already was on the team.

It would become a gift to their father, who would only have to make one trip to see them both.

It also was a way for their mother to pull them closer.

"It brought us together as a family," Quentin said. "One of the reasons I came here was to follow him, to be the same place as my family."

Said Nate: "We became a lot closer and a lot more caring for each other.

"It just was going through that together, the band of brothers idea. They say sometimes the biggest tragedies bring people closer together."

They were with each other at Northwestern for three years, even starting on defense together during part of the 2010 season, Nate's senior year.

They hung out together, they roomed together.

It was a way to be home again.

* * *

They will all be together again on a football field at Penn State.

The father and the oldest son and the youngest, who hopes to lead the Wildcats to their best start in 50 years.

Surely, they all will think of Evelyn Williams.

No, the time to talk usually is her birthday or Mother's Day or the anniversary of her death.

But she's there on football Saturdays, nonetheless.

"I remember her every day," Quentin said. "Definitely, I'll have her in my heart this weekend."